— LINE 01
Climate & environmental justice
Adaptation, loss & damage, and the politics of climate action.
Explore →Researching the political ecologies of conservation and development
Research for just climate & environmental futures.
The FRONTERAS Collective at Colorado State University investigates social-ecological change, adaptation, and stewardship across threatened forest frontiers in the Américas.
— 01
Collaborative research projects in the Amazon (Ecuador & Brazil), the Gran Chaco (Paraguay), Colombia (Pacific Coast), & India (Andaman and Nicobar Islands).
— 02
Research & training that views diversity as a strength — centering historically marginalized perspectives & justice in approaches to complex social-ecological challenges.
— 03
Award-winning program with recognition from international associations, national scientific organizations, and at the university & college levels.
— 04
Supported by the National Science Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, Fulbright, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Tinker Foundation, among others.
Research focus
A collective for transdisciplinary research on climate change, environmental justice, & the nexus of conservation and development.
— LINE 02
Indigenous rights to land & territory
Dispossession, resistance & resurgence — beyond the limits of state recognition.
Explore →
— LINE 03
Political ecologies of development
Natures, extractivism, power, & access in development initiatives.
Explore →
— LINE 04
Biocultural conservation
Stewardship, reciprocity & self-determination to protect people and the planet.
Explore →
Our name
Why Fronteras?
The name says it all, if you know how to read it.
Fronteras is the Spanish word for frontiers and borders, and it speaks directly to where and how we work. The FRONTERAS Collective focuses on forest frontiers where extractive industries, climate change, and expanding infrastructure shape the futures of these social-ecological systems that many call home.
These frontiers are not the periphery but are the frontlines of some of the most urgent social-environmental struggles of our time with far-reaching implications.
Each letter names a core research focus, a commitment, and an interest. Together, these concepts form a framework for our respective and collective work.
Forest Frontiers
Forests are often the frontlines of development pressures, climate change action, and biocultural diversity conservation. Under myriad pressures, they become sites of friction where environmental change and diverse social values and visions of forests intersect with serious implications for current and future matters of climate and environmental justice.
Rights
Indigenous rights to land and territory. The ruptures between states and citizens that open when rights are denied. And the radical potential of rights for "nature."
pOlitical Ecologies
Critical approaches to studying knowledges, power, politics, and the uneven geographies of access to and control over "the environment" in support of more just futures.
Natures
Plural, relational, and contested. We move beyond the notion of a singular Nature in recognition that ontologies of nature are diverse and plural.
Transdisciplinarity
Working with and across diverse epistemologies, co-producing knowledge with partners inside and outside of academia in support of the public good.
Extractivism
The political economic processes reshaping frontier regions and the harmful dynamics of knowledge production that accompany them.
Relationality
Reciprocal obligations and connections across human and other-than-human worlds in method, theory, ethics, and conviviality.
Américas
Our intellectual and geographic home where we work with and from.
Stewardship
Care for people, places, and the planet for futures and the relations that sustain wellbeing.
Approach
Working from, not about.
How we work matters as much as what we study. Our methods foreground relationship, place, and accountability to partners.
We work toward futures defined not by extraction and dispossession but by territorial care, reciprocity, and self-determination.
— FRONTERAS, Research statement
FRONTERAS draws on political ecology, critical development studies, conservation social science, and Indigenous geographies. Our methods are transdisciplinary, rooted in a commitment to science that supports community needs and the public good through critical use of diverse analytical tools. We emphasize long-term partnerships and strive to ensure our work is relevant to broad audiences.
About our approach →
From the field
Radio So’o: Updates about our work.
Where do we grow from here?
Reflections from the 2026 Global Conference on Environmental Justice and the Politics of Hope in the Planetary Age, hosted by the Center for Environmental Justice at CSU.
Antipode special issue published
Querying Nature and (Anti-/De-)coloniality — a symposium several years in the making, convened with Kiran Asher and Penelope Anthias, is now out in Antipode.
A new look
This site has been rebuilt from Joel E. Correia's personal page into a home for the work and community behind the research group: the FRONTERAS Collective.
Join the collective
Let’s connect!
Collaborative research and co-learning are vital for developing strategies to investigate complex social-ecological challenges while supporting pathways to more just futures. If that is the work you want to do, here is how to start a conversation.
01
Prospective graduate students
Send a brief description of your research interests and how they align with our work and the CSU Human Dimensions of Natural Resources graduate programs, along with your current CV or resume.
Write to us →02
Research collaborators
We are excited to work across diverse ways of knowing, from the social and ecological sciences to creative, artistic, and experimental approaches. If you are interested in finding ways to advance transformative research for the good of people and the planet, please reach out.
Get in touch →03
Community and territorial partners
Our research is co-produced with partners in the places where we work. If your organisation is considering a research partnership, let's talk about what possible collaborations could look like.
Start a conversation →Research for action, communities, and bridging knowledges.
Want to talk about potential collaborations or share ideas?